S**t happens. And as an Oriole fan, more times than is pleasant to remember. But hey, with time on our hands...

Here's another from the archives:
1989, Sept. 29 in Toronto. O's need to win the next 2 games.
Closer Gregg Olson (27 saves, 1.69) relieves Ballard in bottom of the 8th to protect a 1-0 lead, yields a steal, advance to third, and tying run on wild pitch. Olson stays in for the 9th and 10th. Williamson comes on in the 11th and loses the game.

1973 Bob Reynolds 9 Sv, 1.95, Grant Jackson 9 Sv, 1.90
ACLS game 3 in Oakland. Weaver leaves in Cuellar, despite yielding tying run in 8th, into the 11th when Campeneris homers to win it for the A's. Unused in the bullpen are Reynolds (1.95) and Jackson (1.90).
But I guess Weaver was saving them for the next game, when the duo combined for 7.1 innings of 1-run relief in a 5-4 Orioles comeback win. (In between, though, with the score tied 4-4 in the 7th, Weaver risked Eddie Watt for two batters). (BTW I was at that game, and predicted the heroics by Etchebarren and Jackson, though I thought it would be Reggie, LOL).

This is really just depressing cause, except for a couple of years in the past 30, this team really has sucked.

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ALCS Games 1 and 2 were at home that year, not away. That changes the calculus a bit as to when Buck was comfortable using his closer.

Oops, good catch. And you're right, it does change the calculus. I forced myself finally to watch *that* game again, especially curious to hear the announcers' reaction to events as they unfolded (or not). Around the sixth or seventh inning Cal Ripken was citing the "conventional" wisdom of saving the closer if you're the road team but using the closer in a late tie game at home.

In the ninth with the Jays threatening, Cal wondered if Buck might bring in Britton to solve a tight jam, but O'Day relieved Brach and got out of it. After that neither announcer made a peep about Britton sitting, until the final comment of the postgame, when someone observed, as an afterthought, that Britton was unused. No, wait, the other announcer did mention briefly late in the game that Kimbrell was unused in a key NL playoff game in 2013, but I looked it up and found no comparable situation in the Atlanta losses.

I do like to play devil's advocate, and so in theory go with Cal's "conventional" practice as acceptable, despite the bad result in this case. Especially, as another poster pointed out, with Liriano so dominant. But that's on paper. Watching Ubaldo absolutely groove those last 3 meatballs in a row (on 3 consecutive pitches?) was just sickening, and brought back that intuitive sinking feeling that all Oriole fans (except Buck, apparently) knew about Ubaldo from his whole erratic history here--notwithstanding a chimerical September of effectiveness. Just a tease... like Daniel Cabrera, and so many others before him. One final observation, IMO the Orioles lost that game mostly because they failed to take advantage of the Jays' weak bullpen (Cecil, Biagini, Grilli, and Osuna) who gave up like 1 hit in the 7th, 8th, and 9th. Okay, ready to move on...

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I was thinking a couple of days ago - and obviously, it'd never work - how cool it'd be for MASN to re-air the entire '12 season, syncing it with the same schedule/date; only difference being that every game would start at 7 pm (with maybe Sunday games moved up to 1 or 4 pm).

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I was thinking a couple of days ago - and obviously, it'd never work - how cool it'd be for MASN to re-air the entire '12 season, syncing it with the same schedule/date; only difference being that every game would start at 7 pm (with maybe Sunday games moved up to 1 or 4 pm).

Better than watching poker tournaments which have to be reruns considering all the travel restrictions.

Excepting the most extreme situations, which this is not, someone should not be penalized for expressing an opinion. In this case he didn’t even express an opinion, he merely agreed with someone else’s. I don’t know what it was and I don’t care. I usually don’t have a problem with atomic, but I take strong exception to his position, and I lament that there are many people who agree with him.
People must have the freedom to express themselves. Drew Brees did not say anything wrong. He has nothing to apologize for. Kapernick doesn’t have a need to apologize either. Reactions to expressing of opinions are so rapidly over the top that soon no one will express any opinions at all except those who loudest and most extreme.
Akin Did not do anything wrong, he didn’t do anything for which he needs to apologize, And people really need to look very closely at what they are advocating.